WSOP Updates - Gavin & Bill get a Lesson from Doyle

In Super System the legendary Doyle Brunson wrote:

"I appear to be a lucky player because every time a big pot comes up, I usually have the worst hand."

I know when I first read the line I was absolutely clueless. Not that I didn't understand what Doyle was saying, I didn't understand poker at all. Only a year or so later when I was ready for the Great One did I reread Super System. When I encountered this statement the second time, I was dumbfounded, I didn't get it or perhaps I just wasn't ready, I still chased flush draws to a raise.

Fortunately I am not alone. Bill Edler told me the other day that it was this exact line from Doyle Brunson that changed his game forever. But there is still hope for my game because also told me that when he read it the first time all he could think was:

"What?"

and on the second reading:

"What? Doyle?"

and after the third reading:

"Are you crazy?"

but on the fourth reading (Doyleisms are worth at least four readings) he got it!

About a year later, Bill told this story to Gavin Smith and heard Gavin say:

"Me too! Same line but I got it after only three reads." [Gavin always was a quick study.]

Part two of this little poker lesson is a bit more difficult. You have to implement a game strategy quite different from tight is right. Only then will you "get" why some of the best players in the world often get their chips in when they are the underdog. I told Doyle the Bill & Gavin story and he said about that strategy:

"Well it's true, it was true when I wrote it and it's still true today."

I will let Doyle give you the entire lesson but remember it may take a couple of reads to really get it. {from SuperSystem}

"I appear to be a lucky player because every time a big pot comes up, I usually have the worst hand. There are good reasons for that. I'm a very aggressive player. I reach out and pick up small pots all the time. I'm always betting at those pots, hammering at them. And I don't want anybody to stop me from doing that. I don't want anyone to defeat my style of play. And if I have any kind of hand, any kind of draw, I bet. If I get raised I don't quit. I go ahead and get all my money in the pot, if it's a reasonable amount, knowing I probably have the worst hand and am the underdog to win the pot"

"Perhaps now you can see more clearly what I explained earlier. When a big pot comes up, I've usually got the worst hand. That weak player finally picked up the nuts... and that's what I usually look at in a big pot. But, I've already paid for that big pot with all the other pots I've won. So I'm freerolling with all that weak players' money (and the money of all the other weak players in the game)."

Ed note: Vince Van Patten of the World Poker Tour plays at Hollywood Poker